The Amex Loan Strikers
The Amex has brought many great things to the plate for Brighton and Hove Albion. A stadium with an actual roof. The chance to lose two stone in weight every time you climb to the top of the West Upper. A supporters bar you have to pay £12 to get into.
Perhaps best of all however is that since moving into that beautiful stadium at the foot of the Downs, the club have shown great determination to allow us to watch every single striker who has ever played professional football by signing them all on loan.
Chuba Akpom was the latest in a long line of strikers – 10 to be exact – to be temporarily signed since we moved to the Amex. With Akpom having sealed a permanent move from Arsenal to PAOK, we thought it was a good time to take another look at him and the other nine loan strikers.
Struggling to remember them all? Fear not. Here is our handy guide to the good, the bad and the Obika…
Billy Paynter – 2011-12 season. 10 games, 0 goals.
We’d love to know what Gus Poyet was smoking when he spent the entire summer of 2011 chasing Billy Paynter as a replacement for Glenn Murray, who he’d deemed not worth paying bigger wages for in the Championship. Poyet eventually Paynter from Leeds United in October 2011 and Paynter offered a fantastic return of 10 games and zero goals. He was such a donkey, it’s been a genuine surprise not to see him running in the Grand National.
Sam Vokes – 2011-12 season. 15 games, 3 goals.
Sam Vokes’ 15 game spell at the Amex was his sixth loan in three seasons. Signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers, he managed three goals in 15 games after replacing Craig Mackail-Smith in the Poyet’s starting line up. The Albion decided not to try and turn the loan into a permanent deal at the end of the 2011-12, and Vokes instead moved to Burnley for a fee believed to be around the £350,000 mark. He’s now a regular in the Premier League with the Clarets which, if you’d suggested would happen during his time at the Albion, would probably have got you sectioned.
Leroy Lita – 2013-14 season. 5 games, 1 goal.
Signed from Swansea City in October 2013, Leroy Lita managed just five substitute appearances for the sake of one goal in a 3-1 win away at Doncaster Rovers. His lack of game time probably had something to do with the fact he arrived looking like he’d been to an all you can eat buffet with Sam Allardyce. He does however gain positive points for having the shiniest head of any Brighton player in recent memory.
Jonathan Obika – 2013-14 season. 8 games, 1 goal.
When Jonathan Obika arrived from Tottenham Hotspur, the rumour was that he had been signed purely because he was mates with Nathan Jones. Many dismissed it. Surely no team with Premier League ambitions would bring in a striker because he was best friends with the assistant manager? Then Obika started playing and suddenly it became entirely possible that the rumour was true. If you’d plucked someone from the stands who was friends with Jones with no footballing ability, they’d have put in performances on a par with him. We’re thinking THAT overhead kick.
Jesse Lingard – 2013-14 season. 15 games, 3 goals.
The exception to the rubbish loan strikers rule. Jesse Lingard joined from Manchester United in the second half of the 2013-14 season and helped the Albion into the play offs with three goals in 15 games for Oscar Garcia’s side. He went onto become a regular at Old Trafford under both Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho and is now a mainstay of the England side that reached the World Cup semi finals, scoring one of the goals of the tournament in the 6-1 win over Panama.
Darren Bent – 2014-15 season. 5 games, 2 goals.
During his brief reign of terror in the first half of the 2014-15 season, Sami Hyypia seemed determined to break the world record for number of players loaned in. Surprisingly given how short we were in attack, only one of those loan players was a striker. Even more surprisingly given that the other loans included the likes of Gary Gardner and Greg Halford, it was actually a relatively successful deal. Ex-England striker Darren Bent arrived from Fulham in November and went onto score twice in five games. Hyypia was soon gone and Chris Hughton – in a rare mistake – decided he’d rather sign the next man on the list…
Leon Best – 2014-15 season. 13 games, 0 goals.
Yes, Hughton who has got so much right and so little wrong during his time in charge at the Amex decided he would rather have Leon Best than Bent. Rather like deciding you would rather spend the night with Edwina Currie than Emma Watson. Best had managed 0 goals in 15 games on loan at Derby County from Blackburn Rovers earlier that season and his record after arriving at the Amex from Ewood Park was nearly as impressive with 0 goals in 13 games. If you were to look up the term “mercenary footballer who will take money but can’t be bothered”, it would simply show a picture of Best.
James Wilson – 2015-16 season. 25 games, 5 goals.
You could argue that James Wilson was a success given the importance of the goals he got. There were five of them over the course of seven months during the 2015-16 season, including in the 3-2 comeback win over Charlton Athletic, the 2-2 draw away Derby, the last minute leveller against the Rams later in the campaign and winners against Huddersfield Town and Reading. Despite that, he seemed to divide opinion among supporters. This seemed odd given that he bought what many of us have done in a Sunday League environment into a televised second tier match by being sick on the pitch before kick off against Wolves.
Glenn Murray – 2016-17 season. 22 games, 15 goals.
It’s easy to forget given how seamlessly he returned to the Albion after a five year absence, but Glenn Murray originally returned on loan from Bournemouth. It’s even easier to forget that plenty of Seagulls fans were against his return, largely because of the fact Poyet didn’t rate him and so he joined Palace so he didn’t have to move away from the city. 15 goals in 22 games before Christmas soon saw that temporary deal turned permanent for £3. The rest, as they say, is history.
Chuba Akpom – 2016-17 season. 10 games, 0 goals.
When Chuba Akpom arrived, plenty of Arsenal fans were quick to laud his “potential”. It’s little wonder the Gunners spent so many years as a laughing stock. He managed just one start with nine further substitute appearances and no goals. Goals weren’t the only thing missing from his game ever – there was talent, commitment and effort to name but three.
